The invention relates to an apparatus for producing packs from at least one foldable blank, especially softcup cigarette packs, in which, in a transfer station, the individual blanks can be fed by means of a feed unit with a blank-holder to one of several receptacles (hollow mandrels) of a folding turret and can be transported by the latter in order to make folds.
High-performance packaging machines are required for producing (folding) and filling cigarette packs. Particularly high demands are made of machines for producing soft-cup cigarette packs. This type of pack consists of an inner wrapping, especially a tinfoil blank, which surrounds the cigarette group, as the contents of the pack, on all sides. The tinfoil block formed in this way is accommodated in a cup produced from a paper blank which is open at the top or on the end face.
Packaging machines for producing this type of pack are predominantly equipped with a folding turret which has a plurality of receptacles arranged along the periphery in the form of hollow mandrels. These are elongate receptacles of rectangular cross-section for the inner (tinfoil) blank and subsequently for the paper blank. The blanks are wrapped round the stationary hollow mandrel and then, together with the cigarette group previously introduced into the hollow mandrel, are drawn off from the hollow mandrel in the longitudinal direction.
Hitherto-known packaging machines for soft-cup packs and similar types of pack have a limited production capacity, above all because the complex folding turret is driven intermittently.